Backroom Baz: Matthew Guy gets a friendly rebrand; Steve McGhie’s $600 ticking clock

Victoria’s Opposition Leader has undergone a big personal switch-up, just three months out from the state election.

First Daniel became Dan, now it seems Matthew has become Matt in a friendly rebrand of the state opposition leader.

The casual rebranding of Matthew Guy three months out from the state’s next election came in a media release over the weekend.

It followed a horror fortnight in which Mr Guy’s chief of staff Mitch Catlin resigned after asking a donor for more than $100,000 in payments to his private business.

Guy’s friend Nick McGowan then took over the role but a disagreement with director of communications Lee Anderson resulted in the latter leaving the job within days.

Mr Guy rebuffed the name change, saying former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his friends called him Matt.

“I don’t mind, you can call me whatever you like,” he told reporters.

Premier Daniel Andrews became the more affable “Dan” during a similar makeover.

But when asked about his opponent’s name flip, Mr Andrews simply said he “doesn’t think” about Mr Guy.

Let’s hope neither of them decides to pull a Prince and turn their names into a symbol.

Steve McGhie’s $600 ticking clock

They say in politics, you can’t win them all.

Melton MP Steve McGhie found this out the hard way recently while attending a lively campaign fundraiser for Rebecca Thistleton and Mike Williams, Labor’s candidates for the Green havens of Melbourne and Brunswick respectively.

The event was, of course, held at the Imperial Hotel and was very much a night for Labor’s Socialist Left, with former ministers Richard Wynne and Jill Hennessy in attendance.

Steve McGhie would have every right to be ticked off over his $600 booty. Picture: Mark Stewart

Things got interesting when Hennessy decided to put a mystery item wrapped in brown paper up for auction, with no hints about what was inside.

Curiosity got the best of McGhie, who stumped up a whopping $600 for something which could very well have been found in the rubbish.

The expensive enigma was later revealed to be an extremely unattractive plastic wall clock which the MP donated to some comrades from the student movement.

Is there anything Labor types won’t do to claw back those inner-city seats?

Game faces

Former Covid commander Jeroen Weimar and health deputy secretary Kate Matson clearly think they work well as a team, with the bureaucrats once again joining forces to work on the state’s Commonwealth Games efforts.

Weimar and Matson both worked for years at the Department of Transport before making the unlikely jump to handling Victoria’s response to Covid outbreaks.

Now the gang is back together again, with Matson joining the commander to take up a new role as Chief of Games Services of the 2026 event.

It’s certainly a change of pace to reading out exposure sites, and the pair’s transport knowledge may come in handy in working out how the V/Line will go in ferrying us to all the big events.

Kate Matson is taking a role as Chief of Games Services. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Jeroen Weimar was in Birmingham as they officially handed the Games over to Melbourne. Picture: Getty Images

See you latte

Baz wishes all the best for departing opposition director of communications Lee Anderson, who has moved on from the role.

A familiar face at every cafe within 100m of Spring St, it is doubtful Anderson will miss having to deal with this column and the scuttlebutt reported inside.

That job now falls to Alex Woff, who takes on the always-challenging role of corralling Liberal MPs and monitoring their media movements.

Paul ‘MC’ Hamer

Is Box Hill MP Paul Hamer the new M.C Hammer?

Although their names are certainly very similar the Labor politician has a lot of work to do if he wants to catch up on the dance moves.

Baz isn’t sure of the backstory, but Hamer posted a video of him dancing to the classic “Can’t Touch This” while rubbing shoulders with his constituents at a street stall recently.

He later clarified that it was “just two engineers with no dance skills whatsoever”.

If this is the start of a new TikTok trend, then the social media app has well and truly jumped the shark.

Don’t mistake Paul Hamer for MC Hammer. Picture: Kiel Egging

The real deal: MC Hammer in 1991.

Ticking clock

Just when you thought all the factional drama was done for a while, Victorian Labor has started to put a timeline on when its members will get voting rights back!

Internal powerbrokers are already wincing (or rubbing their hands with glee) at the thought of managing a return to state conferences, committees and internal ballots.

Part of the reason for the timeline is that the ALP intends to hold its national conference in Brisbane on August 17, 2023, meaning the state of affairs in Victoria needs to be sorted if delegates for the Australian event are going to be voted in.

Balloting for the ALP conference is expected to start in May, with the state conference expected and required about the same time.

That means there’s going to be a whole lot of wheeling, dealing and fighting after the state election and November to have the new “post-intervention” lay of the land sorted by then.

Lived injury experience

The opposition loves to boast about the fact some of its MPs have lived experience in the portfolios they represent.

This, they say, is in stark contrast to the government – where many MPs have risen up the ranks through the union movement or their work as electorate officers in the past.

Baz’s liver would be in serious danger if there was a drinking game every time health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier is mentioned as a former nurse and midwife.

But flying under the radar is Cindy McLeish, the spokeswoman for sports, who insiders have revealed is now sporting an injury because of her passion for her portfolio.

The Eildon MP is said to love a game of hockey here and there, and is now sporting a broken thumb after landing while playing with Southern United recently.

Politics is brutal enough as it is, so credit to anyone who feels game enough to play contact sports.

Guess who

Which Labor factional comrades were spotted out to lunch at Grossi this week?